Number 55- the Plastic Priest- Nicole Cushing

 

Another ARC from Cemetery Dance, and after the disappointment of the previous book, this one has well and truly restored my faith.

Which is ironic since this book centres around a woman priest with faith issues of her own.

Mother Kaye is an Episcopalian priest in the almost ghost town of Owlingsville (pronounced Oh-lings Ville not OWL-ingsville). This novella follows her as she loses first her faith, and then her sanity, and then… well, I’m not 100% certain to be honest. All that and a strange meeting with an ancient Roman God thrown in for good measure.

It might be light on plot, but it’s one of the most satisfying reads I’ve had this year.

What makes this book is Cushing’s writing. She writes in an off-kilter conversational style unlike anything I can recall. In the 100 pages of this book, I almost feel like I’ve lived in this small town. I’ve laughed at the residents, and with Mother Kaye. I've felt annoyed at the residents on Mother Kaye's behalf.

This novella is witty, absurdist, clever and weird. It covers a whole range subjects in it's slim number of pages.  Anyone who can make religious ponderings this compulsive to read is a hell of a talented writer. She manages to make Mother Kaye’s internal conflicts perfectly entertaining and her descent into madness is disturbing on a whole different level.

As soon as I finished it, I wanted to go back and read it again, it is that well written. I will certainly be buying a physical copy. It's not like any other horror novel I've read, but it's certainly under the umbrella.

Nicole Cushing was a brand new name to me before I read this.  She has been added straight onto my list of must-read authors.

Number 54- Evil Whispers - Owl Goingback

 

Owl Goingback is another new name for me. He’s published by Cemetery dance which is a good sign and the plot sounded interesting. This book was supplied as a review copy a long while back and I really should have read it ages ago.

Robert and Janet Pattison are on holiday with their ten-year-old daughter Krissy in the depths of the Everglades. Over 100 years earlier, an escaped slave and voodoo magician Mansa du Paul set up a small town a short distance downriver. Thanks to his taste for eating the children from the local Seminole tribe, he was soon hunted down, killed and his bones scattered. But his spirit remains, haunting a nearby lagoon and whispering to those who can hear him.

Of course, Krissy is one of those people. She soon falls under his spell and the horror resumes. Can local medicine man help save the family and prevent the evil of Mansa du Paul from rising again from the depths?

It has the feel of the old trashy 80s horror novels with garish covers, and most of the same qualities. Goingback takes a story that might have felt like a hoary pile of clichéd nonsense, and gives us a hoary pile of clichéd nonsense.

The copy I read is chockful of typos, wrong word choices (“you’re” for “your” etc) and generally poor grammar. I thought this was because this was an ARC, but then I found out it’s a reprint and the book has been published at least twice before, originally in the year 2001. Suddenly all the errors don’t make quite so much sense.

I might have let them fly if the story and writing in general were better. But sadly, it’s not a good book even if you ignore the errors. The writing is extremely repetitive.

The characters are not well drawn. The style of writing is repetitive in the extreme. There are major continuity errors. Some examples- Jimmy, the medicine man, has been squatting in a shack downriver for at least 30 years. Krissy is not the first child to disappear from the camping huts the family has chosen for their vacation. We’re told that each time a child vanished, the police searched the area thoroughly. However, one of the local cops who’s been on the force for decades, has apparently never seen Jimmy’s shack, which is visible from a canoe ride down the river and only a 10-minute walk from the fishing camp. This is even more surprising since we find out that Jimmy has apparently been arrested every time a child disappeared as well…

In a chapter from Mansa’s point of view, Mansa muses that he hadn’t expected such a large response to his taking Krissy, and ruminates on how the Seminoles didn’t care much when their children were stolen… despite the fact that on the last occasion when he stole Seminole children, the tribe killed all his followers, tied him to a tree and killed him slowly before scattering his bones.

The distance to and from the lagoon seems to change from a half an hour canoe ride to a ten minute walk depending on what’s needed for the storyline.

Those are just a few of the more egregious errors in the narrative. As well as being extremely repetitive, the book is also filled with stock cliched characters who never rise above the stereotype.

Krissy is an exception here as she fails to reach the rank of stereotype ten-year-old. She feels like a five-year-old character rather than the ten-year-old she’s supposed to be.

The Indian witchdoctor and guardian of the lagoon should get a pass on the stereotype front, since the writer is Native American himself, but he still comes across as an unconvincing cartoon Indian that you might expect to find in an episode of Scooby Doo.

You may have realised I’ve used the phrase “Extremely repetitive” several times now. This is because the book is extremely repetitive and I’m simply trying to make you the readers of this blog experience how it feels to read this book without actually having to read it. There are times when he switches viewpoint and describes the previous scene in almost exactly the same phrasing.

Once the killings get underway, there are a couple of effective scenes. But then they repeat themselves from another viewpoint and any tension raised is lost in the eyerolls.

Overall this is a very poor effort. I spent a lot of this book wondering if it was a comedy and I was missing the joke. A real disappointment from a normally extremely reliable publisher. Mr Goingback will not be Goingback on my TBR pile for any of his other works.

Number 53- The eleven- Kyle Rutkin

I received an ARC copy from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review

Kyle Rutkin is a completely new name to me.  The cover looked interesting and so did the plot and so I requested my review copy.

Conner Daniels is an intern for a celebrity gossip website. When famed actress Savannah Beck goes missing and an email to the website suggests a flimsy link to washed up screenwriter Kohl Reynolds, Conner is assigned the task of tracking him down. Kohl’s email promises the greatest story ever that could break Hollywood, but with his reputation as a washed up drunk, no one else had taken the email seriously.

Conner’s a clever chap and finds his man within the first chapter. Most of the rest of the book becomes Kohl’s telling of his life story with jumps back to the current day storyline, with the police closing in on Reynolds.

It’s all very fast paced and hard-boiled, with a conspiracy theory involving cults, satanic influences, and Dante’s Divine Comedy. All the threads of the conspiracy are linked by the mysterious symbol of the Eleven.

I found it all started to fall apart somewhat as it got closer to the end of the book. The end of Kohl’s story does not match up with his behaviour or actions at the start of the book (which they should do, since that’s the point at which the twin narratives collide). For example, we’re not told at which point he sent the email or why. If things are as charged as they are at that point in Kohl’s story, why did he go to see his agent, or indeed to the bar where Conner first meets him.  At this point he is apparently already a fugitive from the law, despite that not happening until the midpoint of the current storyline (Conner’s narration). Also, the behaviour of Grace, Conner’s love interest, does not quite add up at this point either.

The Satanic cult behind everything is suitably menacing.  I like the fact that, despite using character names from the Divine Comedy, Rutkin doesn’t hammer us over the head with the links, instead leaving the canny reader to put 2 and 2 together.

There is plenty of commentary about the damage a bad childhood does to an adult, but incorporated into the story so it doesn't ever feel like it's preaching.

It’s well written and builds tension nicely throughout. It might be vaguely predictable, but it’s a nice take on an overused theme. The two narrators have their own distinct voices, which is always good. There’s nothing more irritating than multiple narrators who talk in the same voice.  It’s a shame he drops the ball at the end, but this was easily good enough that I will read another of his books.

 

Number 52- Stay in the Light- AM Shine

 

Any regular readers of this blog may recall that I was very enthusiastic about The Watchers when I read it last year although I did have reservations about the ending. 

My problem with the ending was that it was an obvious set up for a sequel.  And here is the sequel he set up in those last two pages of The Watchers.

I received a digital copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

The biggest strength of The Watchers was the claustrophobic atmosphere that Shine created. Obviously, since this follows the characters in the outside world, that isn't present any more.

Mina is living in hiding in a remote village on the coast, trying to stay away from the creatures that have followed her. Meanwhile, an archeological dig on the Burren (a massive wild area of natural rock formations in Ireland- looks gorgeous in the pictures I googled) is about to uncover something it really shouldn't. the dig is led by the son of the professor who created the Coop from book one. 

When Mina hears about the dig on the news, she decides she needs to warn him not to go ahead with it.  

This volume does take its time in raising the threat level as high as it was in the first book from almost page one. It does get there though, and the second act is genuinely suspenseful with some pretty damned scary sequences.

The alternating stories, Mina and her race against time, and Sean's experiences on the dig, work to create a palpable sense of danger.

There are even some plot holes from book one filled in along the way.

The problem is that he blows the ending. This is clearly (hopefully) book 2 of a trilogy and the story doesn't actually end in any meaningful way. All that build up, and we're left hanging for another year and a bit till the next book.  The twist in the tale in Sean's storyline was all too obvious too.

I finished the book frustrated by the lack of any resolution rather than fired up for book 3.

Having said that, the next book should be a right banger and scary as hell from the start. Ireland has some amazing mythology that these books are exploring. There's some scary shit in Irish folklore and these books are taking full advantage. Roll on book three.

Number 51- The Night Singers- London Clarke

 I was sent an ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

London Clarke is a new name to me, and until the About the Author page at the end of the book, I didn't even know if they were male or female. She's a woman BTW.

In this book, Callie, a ghost writer, accepts the contact to write the life story of Riff Fall, a rock singer who now lives as a recluse on a small island off the coast of Florida.  

When she stays with him on the island she finds herself growing closer to him than she should.  But there are mysteries about his behaviour.  Why is he so strict about not allowing her out after midnight? What did happen to his ex-wife who disappeared under strange circumstances? Why does he fall ill every time he leaves the boundaries of his property? And who are the strange beings who sing their hypnotic songs outside his house every night?

I think this is the first time I've seen sirens as the villains in a horror novel, and I really enjoyed it. Greek myths have a lot to offer, and this book takes full advantage.

The first two thirds of the book are excellent.  the slow build up is masterfully handled and Callie's natural skepticism is swept away believably. It falls apart slightly in the final act, but not so much as to render this a bad book in any way. 

It's well written  with believable and sympathetic characters. The Sirens/water witches make for an effectively creepy and dangerous antagonist. The only issue I have with the book is the reasonably predictable Deus ex-machina in the final chapters.

She has a few more books out.  I will be adding them to my already out-of-control TBR pile in due course.  

Number 50- Incidents Around The house- Josh Malerman

 

    Good night, Daddo!

    Good Night , Mommy!

Mommy and Daddo leave my room.

I pull the covers up to my chin.

Other Mommy comes out of the closet.

    Hi, I say.

    I'm so excited to see you again

So begins the newest novel by Josh Malerman.

If that opening doesn’t grab you, there must be something wrong with you. It starts with a bang and never stops. This might well be the scariest thing he’s written since Bird Box.

Bela is an 8 year old girl living with Mommy, Daddo and Other Mommy. Other Mommy used to live in the closet, or sometimes in the bathroom, but now she’s getting impatient. She wants Bela to let her into her heart, and Bela says no every time and that makes Other Mommy angry.  If Bela won’t be nice to her, why should she play nice with Bela? The angrier Other Mommy gets, the bolder and nastier she is.

The story is all told from Bela’s point of view. Her parent’s fragmenting marriage is almost as upsetting to her as Other Mommy and her threats. Bela is watching her parents' marriage disintegrate.  Josh manages to describe what's happening in such a way that we know exactly what's going on even if Bela doesn't. The innocence in the narrative voice makes the terror going on around her even more erm... terrifying.

The plot with the parents crumbling relationship grounds the story in a heartbreaking reality. Meanwhile Other Mommy is easily the scariest creation in horror fiction in a good few years.  I can't remember being as freaked out by a book as this one. 

It's an almost perfect horror novel, managing to create a genuinely creepy atmosphere without ever slacking on the pace.  This isn't a slow burn to build atmosphere (not that a slow burn is a bad thing- it really isn't), it's straight in there with the scares and never lets up. There are even a couple of jump scares in here.

Basically, go out and grab a copy if you can.  you won't regret it.

Number 49- Those Who Are Loved - Victoria Hislop

 

This month’s book group read. My first and probably last book by Victoria Hislop.

In the prologue, Themis, an old Greek woman, decides that the best present she can give to her grandchildren is her life story. It's not an ideal present to be honest. Up until the epilogue, we are treated to the story- in third person omniscient narration including lots of details that she couldn’t possibly have known, but which it appears in the epilogue that she did tell her grandchildren.

We learn a lot about the turbulent political history of Greece. And some of that detail is actually pretty interesting. However, it all seems pretty polarised and simplified- like trying to explain it all to children.  There’s no nuance in any of the character’s political leanings.

The brother who supports the right wing is turned into an actual monster and given a permanent scar across his face.  The brother who supports the communists can do no harm. When Themis joins the Communist army and goes out to fight for them, she seems to accept all the atrocities she witnesses (and takes part in) as just doing what needs to be done. There is barely any criticism of their actions no matter how nasty.

Of course, she falls in love with a fellow soldier and begins sleeping with him while she’s supposed to be on guard duty. Her guerilla platoon is ambushed soon after her lover is transferred away to another marauding mob. She finds herself detained in a series of prisons designed to break the spirits of the communists and make them revoke their beliefs.

At this point in the proceedings, things get eye-rollingly predictable. The next couple of big reveals were so clichéd and hackneyed I might have stopped reading if it wasn’t the book group book.

After her release from the prison islands, she spends the next several decades trying not to be noticed and bringing up her children, biological and adopted, with her new husband, sitting on the sidelines and watching the political situation swing in various directions.

There are big dramatic events going on in this book, but it all feels bland, with very little drama, even when she’s out fighting in guerilla units, or trapped on prison islands where the guards torture the prisoners.

The evil nazi brother is given the most gentle of redemption arcs to highlight the power of family…  despite the fact that, for the first two thirds of the book, family was just somewhere where brothers and sisters had irreconcilable differences and just screamed at each other over the dining table. The dining table is a character in its own right, and possibly less wooden than some of the supporting cast.

She clearly knows a lot about Greece and its history.  The latter half of the book does occasionally read like a history lesson about the swings in Greek politics. She deserves kudos for the level of research that has gone into writing this. It’s just a shame that it isn’t always woven as seamlessly into the story as it could be and feels like she’s just listing historic events.

It's not a complete failure of a book but isn’t far off. It’s readable. There are some interesting sequences and some nice humour in the early childhood sequences. Overall, it’s just bland.  The literary equivalent of a big mac with the pickles and the sauce removed. It deals with political commentary with about the same level of subtlety as using a tank to break down a door.

I suppose you could argue that her blindness to her side’s faults is a form of commentary, but it doesn’t come across that way whilst reading the book. The lack of any nuance anywhere else seems to dispute that particular interpretation.

So overall, readable.  Occasionally interesting (if a bit of a lecture). But all a bit bland.

Number 48- Ascender Vol 4- Lemire/Nguyen

 

The triumphal end to the epic Descender/Ascender storyline is suitably epic.

Taking everything back to where it started, all the characters are gathered together for a final showdown.

All previous comments about quality of writing and artwork apply here again. Lemire continues to produce mind-bending concepts and juggles multiple storylines and timelines apparently effortlessly.

The artwork is as distinctive and gorgeous as ever with the watercolour effects.

All in all, a great end to an epic series.